Re: the caching issue. I asked around at work and got this info from a couple of the game programmers in case anyone is interested:


PS1 has only a 1 sector read ahead cache for data loading

The special format streaming audio has in the region of 32k internal cache (can't remember exactly but it is of no real help in shock proofing)

aside from that, the CD operation is application specific - some games with a lot of streaming audio never spin down - and a lot of games just use CD-DA for their music all the way through.

Some games load up and then spin down for play until a level is restarted

PSX is renowned for accelerated CD hardware wear and tear, and CD reading difficulties generally.

Not much help I'm sure, other than there is no mechanism for shock protection - try playing a game in a PSX and jolt the unit - that will show you.


and


its also not a very good predictive device (no esp) it will retry a number of times to make sure it gets the data... it reads only when it needs something, not when it thinks it MIGHT need something...this can result in music stopping for no apparent reason, big lags loading... like _big_ lags... sometimes crashing. But once everything is in ram, most of gameplay wont be interrupted by bumps as you arent hitting the disk for anything (ie: you have music off).


So, basically i'm going to have to shockmount that puppy good. A big pad of foam seems like a fairly easy solution, if not unnatractive, but it'll get the job done. (the mind churns with visions of spring mounted platforms.....)




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